Films Were Made

Films Were Made
 
Volume 1 ‘The Region at Work’

A look at films and film makers in the East of England 1896-1996

with chapters on
Industry, Farming, The Coast, Transport, Wartime, & Regional Television

Since 1896 people have operated motion picture film cameras in the East of England recording and making films in the counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Only a fraction of the films made have survived, but those that have show us what life was like, what film makers were making, and what we were watching and doing. These may be local films, home movies, cinema films, television films, educational films, publicity films etc. This book looks at some of these films and the people behind them, and is based on films preserved in the East Anglian Film Archive. This is a unique and wonderful research collection of material reflecting local history in the form of moving images of the past. This is Volume 1 entitled “The Region at Work” of a two part work by David Cleveland, founder of the East Anglian Film Archive in 1976 – the first regional motion picture film archive in the country. The Archive is owned and run by the University of East Anglia.

Hardback A4 size, 282 pages, 422 illustrations (28 of which are in colour)

Price £27

Available upon receipt of cheque for £30 from
David Cleveland
48 High Street
Manningtree Essex C011 1AJ

We cannot restore or repair everything that is lost

1953 Flooding in Essex

The Prime Minister (Mr. Winston Churchill):
 

I beg to move, That this House desires to record its deep sympathy with the Governments and peoples of the Netherlands and Belgium in the personal suffering and material loss inflicted on them by the unprecedented violence of the sea on the night of 31st January to 1st February, 1953, and its approval of the practical measures of assistance which have been extended by Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom; and further offers warm thanks on behalf of the people of the United Kingdom for the spontaneous generosity of friendly nations within and without the Commonwealth which has been freely proffered for the relief of the hardship and loss suffered by so many of Her Majesty's subjects on that occasion; And that this House, deeply moved by the calamity which befell this country on the same night, records its sympathy with all those who suffered bereavement, injury or material loss by tempest or flood; takes note of the declared intention of Her Majesty's Government to treat the catastrophe on a national basis; welcomes the welfare measures to mitigate suffering and distress and the measures to repair the damaged sea defences which were put in hand; acknowledges with gratitude the unremitting labours, during and since the disaster, of local and statutory authorities, police forces, voluntary organisations, and civilian workers, including voluntary workers; pays tribute to the magnificent work done by members of Her Majesty's Forces and the Forces of her Allies; and pledges its support in seeking the solution to the problems left by the disaster, many of which are recognised to be of a long-term character. The shock felt by the whole nation on hearing, for the first time, of the great storm which swept over the North Sea coasts during the night of 31st January has been followed, as the toll of tragedy and devastation has been counted, by a surge of deep concern and sympathy for all those who suffered. It is that sympathy and concern, especially for the relatives of those who died, which we wish to put on record today. We are resolved that the nation shall do everything within its power to make good the distress which this sudden disaster has brought to so many thousands of our fellow countrymen. We cannot restore or repair everything that is lost, but we shall seek to combine the generosity of the individual and the resources of the State so as to replace as best we may the homes and the furnishings which the seas by their invasion have destroyed.

Great as our own afflictions have been, the thoughts of the British Empire turned throughout these days to our neighbours in the Low Countries, whose ordeal was far harder than our own. I am indeed glad that our Armed Forces were able to lend their help to the people of the Netherlands, whose courage and resolution have again proved worthy of their famous past. We and they, too, have been encouraged and sustained by the generous and spontaneous offers of help which have poured in upon us from overseas. They have not only come from countries in our own Commonwealth and Empire, which have never failed us in our hour of need, but from peoples and Governments of many other lands.

Finally, we remember with gratitude and admiration the many thousands who worked day and night to bring relief to those in danger and distress—the Armed Forces of the Crown, the police, the local authorities, the Red Cross and St. John, the Civil Defence organisations, mustering at once at the sound of the alarm, the Women's Voluntary Services, most effective and intimate, the Salvation Army and the Church Army, and all the magnificent voluntary organisations which we never called upon in vain.

Then there are a vast number of unknown, but not less honourable, individuals who have shown themselves willing to prove that they are good neighbours in the hour of need, and who will unite or are capable of uniting effectively in good planning to prevent a renewed disaster. All engaged in this showed once again in various ways the quality and strength of our civilisation.

from the House of Commons debate on 19th February 1953, in Hansard vol 511 cc1456-580

Women threw down banks and works, and burned instruments and tools

The Star Chamber (from a drawing taken in 1836) from Old and New London Vol. II (1881) by Edward Walford

"that diverse were set on work by Sir Cornelius Vermuyden to make trenches for the draining, that 300 persons came to the workmen, and Harrison, Gibson and Moody threatened to kill the workmen: and Brown, Stockwell, and William Scott told them if they would leave their work that would appease the multitude; or else they might go on at their peril: that labourers were hurt; 8 wheelbarrows, 180 deal boards, planks, many shovels, spades, pickaxes, and other materials and instruments were burnt. That one Mr Hawthorne was thrown into the river, and kept in with poles a great while; that they cried out, "Drown him! Kill him! Break his arms of legs!" That James Moody, Harrison, Henry Scott, and Edward Gibson did cry out, "Throw him into the river! Break his arms and legs!" Others were beaten with dry blows, Hawthorne's face was hoodwinked with a cloak or coat, and so cast into the river, and Richard Scott and others laid hands on him, and struck and beat him; but bid them not to duck him over head least he should be drowned, but rather to break his arms or his legs, and so let him go; and some of the rioters poured water in at the necks of some of the workmen; and one run at the deponent with a drawn knife and cut his clothes, and some cried out, "Cut his throat! Break his legs!" and made them swear never to come there again. They set up a gallows and threaten to hang such of Sir Cornelius Vermuyden's men as would come thither again. The women assembled themselves to the number of 200 in 1629 diverse days and times, and threw down banks and works, and burned instruments and tools."

from Reports of Cases in the Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission (1886) edited by S. R . Gardiner

Another riotous assembly

Tidal Protection Barrier for Sutton Saltmarsh (2009) by Simon Read

Sept. 15th [1632]

Affidavit of John Hunns, of Tyd St. Giles, co. Cambridge, Labourer.
On the 26th July last James Balder, accompanied by George Tilson the elder, and various others, came in a riotous manner into Sutton Salt Marsh, lately inned from the sea by Sir Cornelius Vermuyden. They demanded of deponent whose man he was. He answered he was employed by Sir Cornelius. They replied in a scornful manner that Sir Cornelius had nothing to do there, neither should any horses which belonged to the workmen stay there. They then destroyed a gate and a bridge, and assaulted deponent and tore all his clothes from his back.

Sept. 15th [1632]

Affidavit of William Leake, of Newark -upon-Trent, co. Notts, and John Hunns, mentioned in the preceding article. They depose to another riotous assembly of Capt. Skipwith, James Balder, George Tilson the elder, and others in Sutton Salt Marsh, on the 12th inst. They threatened to pull down a house of one of Sir Cornelius Vermuyden's labourers, took the horses of the labourers, cut their halters, and violently pulled some of the labourers from their horses to the peril of their lives.

from Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of Charles I: 1631-1633

The gnats and flies, that is the common sort of the inhabitants

Map of the Isle of Axholme before the drainage by Vermuyden 1626 from The M.S. in a Red Box (1903) by an unnamed author believed to be John Hamilton

The plan, however defective, was rapidly proceeded with, so that before
the close of the second year from its commencement, it was so far completed
that a Commission was issued in order to survey and divide the same. "Cor-
nelius Vermuyden," says Prymne, "to the great surprise - of the whole nation,
and to the vast advantage of the country round about, which before was but
barbarously and thinly inhabited, poor and beggarly, and at the incredible
labour and charges of above £400,000 did dis-chase and drain Hatfield
Chase, whose name deserves a thousand times more to be honourably men-
tioned and received in all histories, than Seaurus was in those of Rome, for
draining a great lake in Italy not a quarter so big as this." That the large
deep pools of water were drained off the Chase, we are willing to allow; but
that this was done to the great benefit of the country round about," is an
assertion which we can by no means admit; The very reverse was the fact,
as the History which I am about to relate will abundantly prove.

The Commissioners were the Viscount Aire, Sir John Saville, Sir Ralph
Hansby, and Sir Thomas Fanshaw. They proceeeded with their task amidst
the loud complaints of the inhabitants, who alledged that the work could
not be said to be completed, for that instead of the water being conveyed
away, it was only removed from the new lands to be spread upon the old:
and when they had assigned the thirds to the respective parties, they were
charged with having sacrificed the interest of the natives, by assigning to
them only the lowest and worst lands. This dissatisfaction of the Commoners
soon produced acts of open violence and outrage.

A manuscript written by one of the original Proprietors gives us the fol-
lowing account of some of these proceedings. "While the great projector
was actively employed in this undertaking, he found himself mightily an-
noyed by the gnats and flies, that is the common sort of the inhabitants,
that set upon him when he should rest ; for they finding these mounds of
earth, cast up for his ease and security. would prove their utter ruin, and dam
that water upon their ancient lands above which should, lay upon his im-
provement below, they disturbed him in his works and when that would not
do, in great numbers they burnt his carts and barrows and working instru-
ments, in great heaps by night."

from The History and Topography of the Isle of Axholme: Being that part of
Lincolnshire which is west of Trent (1838) by Rev. W. B. Stonehouse

Soe many washings still the specks remaine

Landscape with a double rainbow (1812) John Constable

   The skies give succour or they withhold it; and whatever their whim, for the countryman the eternal promise is still vivid in the soft rainbow that spans the fields. For the rainbow over the battered ark, like Adam's expulsion from the Garden of Eden, is one of the several Bible stories that come very near the heart of things for him. He it is who still actually bears the burden of Adam's fall from grace, and for him the rainbow is still knit with the hues of god's mercy.
   I remember coming upon a memorial tablet in a Fenland church commemorating the floods that had devastated the district in the years 1613, 1614, and again in 1670. Surely, complained the author of the quaint rhyme:

'Surely our sins were tinctured in grainne.
May we not say the labour was in vaine,
Soe many washings still the specks remaine.'

In teh face of such continued punishment out of the relentless skies the rainbow itself seemed little better than mockery. But not for long. The countryman know better than that.

'Heavens face is clear, though the Bowe appeare
Reader nere fear: there is no arrow neare.'

from Miles from Anywhere (1944) by C. Henry Warren